Good morning and welcome to the April 4 edition of Kalamazoo Today, your look at what's coming up in Southwest Michigan and what you may have missed.

— EMPLOYMENT RATE UP: The unemployment rates are down in Southwest Michigan and more people are working, according to numbers released yesterday. Yvonne Zipp reports for the region:

Five out of nine counties -- Allegan, Barry, Calhoun, Cass and Kalamazoo -- reported jobless rates lower than the national rate of 8.7 percent. Kalamazoo County, which reported a 7.0 percent unemployment rate, would have to drop another 0.9 percentage points to reach its pre-recessionary levels.

— UPTON IN TOWN: Congressman Fred Upton is in town today for a Facebook marketing event for small businesses, as well as a tour of Biomat USA Plasma Donor Center. See more details in the Southwest Michigan Politics blog.

The CBS affiliate, whose newscasts and programming serve most of West Michigan, including Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Battle Creek, is one of eight television stations sold by Freedom Communications to Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. as part of a $385 million deal. Lansing’s WLAJ was among the eight purchased.